Waveform (term?) extends beyond bounds of the window

[ixodid]

I recently reinstalled Windows and reinstalled Audacity. Now, the audio I import to Audacity displays "too big" - that is, the waveform (is that the correct term?), is expanded above and below the bounds of the window.

On some recordings (all recordings are voice by POTS or VOIP) the audio quality is good. On some, there is a little bit of distortion (is that "clipping?"). The sources for the recordings that have the distortion have their volume outputs set very low - almost as low as they can go.

Is the expanded waveform something that should be adjusted? As I said, on some recordings the sound quality is okay, but it just doesn't seem that it should be expanded beyond the bounds of the window.

(Also, please correct any of my terminology so next time I don't sound so clueless!)

Audacity 2.0.2 from .exe - Win 7 x64

[kozikowski]

All the way up and down on the timeline is where the digital system "runs out of numbers" and can no longer accurately represent your show. The blue waves, if you magnify them a little, appear to have their tops and bottoms clipped off by this damage and this gives us "clipping" kind of sound damage. Digital overload is probably more accurate, but clipping is more colorful.

The sources for the recordings that have the distortion have their volume outputs set very low - almost as low as they can go.

That's the symptom of someone who is trying to jam production sound equipment into the Mic-In of their laptop instead of a microphone.

So we need a lot more details of what you're doing and how you're doing it.

Koz